- Year 2022
- NSF Noyce Award # 1660506
- First Name Janelle
- Last Name Johnson
- Discipline Other:STEM
- Co-PI(s)
Hsiu-Ping Liu
- Presenters
Madeline Onstott, Euclid Middle School, Joseph Schneiderwind, Daniel C. Oakes High School, Janelle M. Johnson, Metropolitan State University of Denver.
Need
STEM teacher preparation programs often strive to help candidates address gaps in student achievement, reflecting a focus on equity. While this is a positive trend of increasing attention to diversity, equity, and inclusion in STEM, it is important to note one community continues to be excluded from many of the conversations—learners with disabilities. Some of the Noyce Scholars who responded to this Call to Action research project directly addressed this gap. Their work illuminates the outcomes of efforts to support teachers’ capacity to become stronger advocates and agents of change for more inclusive STEM.
Goals
How have students’ struggles with the Call to Action project illuminated preservice STEM teachers’ learning needs? What lessons have been learned to shape the design of the project?How does the Call to Action support preservice STEM teachers’ development of theoretical “lenses” support their effectiveness as teachers in high-needs schools? In what ways does the Call to Action project cultivate STEM teachers’ voices as advocates and agents of change over time?
Approach
The approach utilized in this project was designed to cultivate student voice and the self-efficacy to become agents of change through a Call to Action research project. It offers one approach to facilitating development of a social justice lens on STEM, and one where both students and faculty can be co-learners. This poster outlines the components of the Call to Action project and captures the work of several undergraduate secondary math and science teacher candidates and their advocacy for more inclusively serving students in STEM fields.
Outcomes
Students choose an educational inequity they are passionate about and combine a synthesis of the policy context with a sharp focus on a particular community. They learn to create a series of concrete actions they can take to address the inequity, and those actions are captured in a public service announcement. The project concludes with an expo where students publicly share their Call to Action. Research about the outcomes of this project on STEM teachers’ identity and self-efficacy are ongoing.
Broader Impacts
Much of teacher preparation and professional learning continues to silo content and inclusive pedagogies. Why can’t we all better learn to serve all our students? This poster features some of the ways secondary math and science teachers can be agents of change for inclusively better serving the needs of each student, including those with disabilities.
